I've got my science hat on today (it glows, and there are many bells and whistles) and am having a stab at making a controller. I haven't got one here and it's irritating trying to test locos with just a 9V battery. So, the plan is to make something that I can use for testing, which means adding a degree of automation to shuttle a loco back and forth along a short length of track. That means Arduino.

So I've had a play around with a new Nano Every on a breadboard with a PWM motor driver - total cost less than £20. If I bought the unbranded eBay equivalents it would be even cheaper. I've got it set up running a motor up to full speed, hold for 5 seconds, then ramp back down to stop. Then the same in reverse. I've tested a load of different motors and they all seem to be running ok. Next step is to mess around with the programming a bit more, add manual control and make a nice neat PCB for it all to sit on. No small task then!

Stats:

Total motor test hours (so far): 2

No. of motor types tested: 5

Cumulative pushup counter: 2125